MAN 167 



mal Life in the Sea " tells about the present in- 

 habitants of the ocean. It is therefore unneces- 

 sary to say much in this volume regarding the 

 distribution of animal life. A table is, however, 

 appended, which is not without interest. It shows 

 how the chief great groups of animals are divided 

 between land life and water life, whether in fresh 

 water or salt. It will be seen that the terrestrial 

 animals are much in a minority, and that they 

 belong, for the most part, to the higher types. 

 They are, in fact, stragglers, bold emigrants from 

 the early home of animal life, which lies in th 

 more shallow parts of the waters of the sea. 



CHAPTER XV 



IF we are to accept the opinion of Dr. Isaac 

 Watts, man, as a moral being, is distinctly inferior 

 to the " birds in their little nests," who live in 

 harmony with one another ; and, again, if we are 

 to believe Solomon, he is by no means always the 

 equal in intelligence of the Ant. Yet somehow it 

 came as a shock to many who had been accus- 

 tomed to revere both these authors, when they 

 were asked, early in the latter half of the nine- 

 teenth century, to regard man, from a zoological 

 point of view, as just a little superior to the Apes. 



Then arose a great agitation as to the possi- 

 bility of finding the Missing Link. We shall see 

 later on in this chapter, that if Research had been 

 content, like Charity, to begin at home, its indus- 

 try would have been duly rewarded. 



